On This Day in 1988, Poison Topped the Chart With One of the Greatest Power Ballads Ever Written—Inspired by a Devastating Phone Call Made From a Laundromat

On this day (December 24) in 1988, Poison topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” The now-classic power ballad spent three weeks at No. 1, making it the final chart-topper of 1988 and the first of 1989.

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“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was Poison’s biggest hit and only song to reach the top of the Hot 100. It also became one of the band’s signature songs. Decades after its release, the ballad remains popular among fans and regularly lands on nostalgic best-of lists.

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Like many hair bands, many of Poison’s songs were about partying, hooking up, and having a good time. As a result, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” was a major change of pace for the band. However, by the late 1980s, hair metal fans were used to their favorite bands taking up acoustic guitars and slowing things down for heartfelt ballads.

Poison Frontman Bret Michaels Wrote This Song After a Heartbreak

According to Songfacts, Poison frontman Bret Michaels wrote “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” after having his heart broken.

The band was on tour and far from home. After a show, Michaels called his girlfriend and, while they were talking, he heard a man’s voice in the background. “I remember using a payphone to call this girl I was dating,” he recalled. “We were on the road, touring in our Winnebago, and my relationship was falling apart,” Michaels added.

He took his acoustic guitar and a yellow legal pad to a nearby laundromat and started working on putting his heartbreak into a song. “I still have the yellow legal pad I wrote it on. There are, like, a bazillion verses that I later edited down,” Michaels revealed.

While the rose and thorn metaphor at the song’s core can be applied to various situations, Michaels had a specific situation in mind. The rose, he explained, was his career taking off. The thorn, on the other hand, was the price he paid for fame, including losing his girlfriend while on the road.

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